Judge Orders Sex-Change Operation for Prisoner

In this January 1993 photo, Robert Kosilek sits in Bristol County Superior Court, where Kosilek was on trial for murdering his wife.

In a first-of-its-kind ruling, a federal judge in Boston has ordered Massachusetts authorities to provide a taxpayer-funded sex-change operation for a transgender prisoner.

Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf said he based his ruling on the recommendations of doctors at the commonwealth’s Department of Correction who prescribed sex-reassignment surgery as “the only form of adequate medical care” for Michelle Kosilek.

Kosilek, who used to go by “Robert,” is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 1990 murder of his wife.

Judge Wolf, describing his 126-page order as “unprecedented,” said that denying Kosilek the surgery was a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

Prison officials opposed the operation, saying they couldn’t provide security for Kosilek were he to receive a sex change — an argument Judge Wolf described as “pretextual.” Several state legislators publicly opposed using taxpayer funds to pay for the sex-reassignment surgery.

Specialists have diagnosed Kosilek with severe gender identity disorder, and since 2003 he has been receiving female hormones. . .